Cap­tu­ring science gold at Mon­treal fair

Big bang forMacDo­nald, West­wood stu­dents

For the first time in se­ve­ral years, West­wood Jr. High School will send two re­pre­sen­ta­tives to the Que­bec pro­vin­cial science fair la­ter this month.

Grade 8 stu­dents Mat­thew Stuart and Rut­ger Boe­len’s pro­ject was among 12 of a to­tal 207 pro­jects se­lec­ted to move on to the pro­vin­cial science fair, the Su­per Ex­po-sciences Bell Que­bec tour­na­ment, af­ter their par­ti­ci­pa­tion last week in the Bell Mon­treal Re­gio­nal Science& Tech­no­lo­gyFair.

The re­gio­nal fair was held March 23 at Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty. The event mar­ked 50 years of or­ga­ni­zedQue­becs­cience fairs.

Stuart and Boe­len lear­ned they­will com­pete at the Uni­ver­si­té de Mon­tréal April 15 to 18, du­ring an award ce­re­mo­ny that saw the duo walk away with th­ree se­pa­rate awards for their de­si­gn pro­ject tit­led, Dry Clothes and Keep the Heat.

The stu­dents at­temp­ted to de­si­gn a de­vice that would re­di­rect dryer heat, mi­nus lint and hu­mi­di­ty, in­to the home to help with hea­ting in win­ter.

West­wood science tea­cher Gail Stan­worth, whose student en­trants were from the school’s en­ri­ched pro­gram, said this is the first time in more than 10 years (not conse­cu­tive) of re­gio­nal science fair par­ti­ci­pa­tion that her stu­dents ha­ve­mo­ve­don­to­pro­vin­cials.

“I am thril­led for the boys and for all of our stu­dents, this is the stron­gest sho­wing we’ve ever had,” she no­ted, ad­ding, “I’m proud of all of them.”

In all, West­wood stu­dents took home th­ree gold me­dals, th­ree sil­ver and two­bronze.

In ad­di­tion to Stuart and Boe­len, win­ners in­clu­ded: Lau­ra Bé­ru­bé and Liane Mor­neault, who­took a sil­ver me­dal and the McGill Fa­cul­ty of En­gi­nee­ring Award for their pro­ject, A Gust of Fresh Air; a sil­ver me­dal to De­la­ney Kos­tu­rik for her pro­ject, Fa­na­ti­cal Fer­men­ta­tion; a gold­me­dal toMi­chele Seiv­wright and Ash­ley Schroe­der for Gone Ba­na­nas (and the McGill School of Die­te­tics and Hu­man Nu­tri­tion Award); a bronze to Pe­ter Quinn and Mi­chael Vrou­vides for Hy­dro­po­nics: Fu­ture of Far­ming (and the FP In­no­va­tion Award for Fo­rest Sec­tor So­lu­tions); bronze to Za­cha­ry Du­four for Oil & Fea­thers Don’t Mix; Soil Mat­ters gar­ne­red Elias Lat­chem andMal­colm Des­jar­dins a sil­ver and the McGill De­part­ment of Mi­ning and Ma­te­rials En­gi­nee­ring Award, while Kel­seigh Boog and Kel­ly Ma­gurn took gold and the Con­cor­dia Bio­lo­gyDe­part­ment award­for their­pro­jectWantW­hite?

Meanw­hile, stu­dents from MacDo­nald High School in Sainte-Anne-de-Bel­le­vue al­so par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the fair. Their­win­ners in­clu­ded: Sil­ver for Alexan­dra Nu­do for An Apple A Day ...; a bronze for Christopher Bou­tin and Mathieu Du­bé for Shoo­ting the Goo!; an­dan ho­nou­rable men­tion toMau­deVi­nette fo­rher pro­ject, TheSenses.

MacDo­nald’s strong sho­wing

Good turn out

The re­gio­nal fair was open to stu­dents from Mon­treal, La­val, Mon­té­ré­gie and Lau­ren­tians. Or­ga­ni­zers say the­re­was a 60 percent par­ti­ci­pa­tion rate from 18 pri­vate and 24 pu­blic schools and CEGEPs. In all, 207 pro­jects we­re­pre­sen­ted for judges’ consi­de­ra­tion.

Of those, 12 will be part of the pro­vin­cial fi­nal that will bring to­ge­ther 100 of the best pro­jects crea­ted by young scien­tists and tech­no­lo­gists fro­ma­crossQué­bec.

His­to­ry

The first bi­lin­gual Science Fair was held in the Ri­che­lieu Val­ley in 1960. At the time, stu­dents from just th­ree English and eight French schools ex­hi­bi­ted pro­jects. The first Metropolitan Science Fair was held in Mon­treal one year la­ter.

Dif­ferent groups and or­ga­ni­za­tions have been in charge of events over the years, and in 1981, theMon­treal Re­gio­nal Science Fair for An­glo­phone stu­dents was crea­ted by th­ree tea­chers fromMa­ria­no­po­lisCol­lege. In 2001, the Edu­ca­tio­nal Alliance for Science and Tech­no­lo­gy took charge of the struc­ture used to­day. In all, $25,000 in scho­lar­ships and prize mo­ney­wa­sal­so avai­lable to par­ti­ci­pants.

Science Fair: West­wood Jr. High School stu­dents from the en­ri­ched pro­gram gar­ne­red more me­dals than ever last week.